Sunday, April 15, 2012

HOW TO GUIDE: Remove effects from a game.


HOW TO REMOVE EFFECTS FROM A GAME.

BEFORE
AFTER


This is a guide to REMOVE effects from a game. This is NOT a guide to fix effects as done in other games by helix/mana84/others. Many games have small effects that ruin games in 3d that can be easily removed and not take away from the experience.

Whats needed:
Notepad
A game to fix[MUST BE DIRECT X 9]
Debugger  [If game is not compatible with one version or you can not find the effect with newest version please try an older version]

First step is to open up windows explorer and navigate to your games folder. And find the games MAIN .exe(executable). This is often the main folder or binaries folder.


Now that we found the games .exe we know where to put the debug file aka d3d9.dll. Download a debug file here. Then put the d3d9.dll in the same folder as your .exe.[For valve games please put d3d9.dll in binaries folder regardless of where .exe is]
Now launch game. As soon as you launch game first thing you should notice is RED TEXT at top of screen. If you do not see red text at top of screen you probably placed in wrong directory. If you crash please read HERE if it still doesn't work please try a different version of debug. Please keep in mind not all games are compatible.
























Now that we are in game we can navigate through the shaders. Turn on numlock and navigate through the shaders
VS:Vertex shaders.Numpad 4-5 for navigation.Numpad 6 to save
PS:Pixel shaders.Numpad 1-2 for navigation. Numpad 3 to save.
Personally I like to hold numpad 2+5 till I find the shader I need and save accordingly. Now when you find the shader you want to disable.More often then not it will dissapear as shown in before/after screenshots. Sometimes however the effect will distort. If you dont find one that makes it disapear save the one that distorts it.
























Now we found the shader. It is a vertex shader. We save it with numpad 6[if pixelshader use numpad 3]. Now we exit out of game. And go into our windows explorer. In the same directory where we put our d3d9.dll there should now be a folder called dumps.
Go into ..dumps/singleshader/vertexshader    [if pixelshader go into pixelshader]























Now copy that file(txt) via right-click copy. Now navigate to the directory where you put your d3d9.dll file. Create a new folder called Shaderoverride . Within that folder create a folder called either vertexshaders or pixelshaders according to the file you have. In this case its vertexshaders. Paste the .txt into that folder.
So it should like this:
(starting folder)/shaderoverride/vertexshaders                   or
(starting folder)/shaderoverride/pixelshaders

























Now that our file is in the correct folder we need to edit it.The file name should only be named the 8 digit crc at then end of its name. So in this case I rename
VertexShader_8_CRC32_F7A53416.txt
to
F7A53416.txt
If the file you are working with only has 7 digits please add a 0 to the front.
Now open the .txt in notepad. We need to remove everything and make it blank. Right click - Select All. Right Click - Delete.  Then paste the following if its a Vertex Shader.
vs_3_0
dcl_position v0
dcl_position o0

























If you are instead using a pixel shader paste the following instead.
ps_3_0
dcl_texcoord v0

Now save the file. And relaunch game. If effect is still not gone please try again to find correct shader. In the game I was  working on I had two remove 2 vertexshader to entirely remove the effect.










Congratulations. You just removed a bad effect from a 3d game. Now you can download a release from
here. And replace that with your debug version. When all done please either contact eqzitara on nvidia forums or post on this thread with your shaderoverride and some pictures if you can. Help the 3d community grow.

43 comments:

  1. ///

    Hello,

    I have tried to remove the shadows of the main character in the game "Spec Ops: The line". I perform all the steps, I find the shadows, created the files in the folders, but entering the game, the shadows are still there. Do I need to create some additional files?

    Salu2.

    //////

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi,

    I'm trying to fix Dishonored. I located the VertexShader which is responsible voor shadows which I'd like top remove (VS: 895 + 896). However, when I press numpad 6 the shader isn't saved. What am I doing wrong?

    Pfipfo

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. there may still be a patch for dishonored.

      Make sure folder isnt read only.

      Delete
    2. "there may still be a patch for dishonored."

      You mean by the creators of Dishonored?

      Thanks for the read-only tip. It works now!

      Delete
  3. Hi,

    I'm trying how to learn how to fix games myself with the helix mod.

    In dishonored, I had an issue with the gun (it sort of doubles, halo/shadow around it).

    I disabled VS 488, and the unwanted effects disappeared. But, as a sideffect, the lower part of my screen turned black. Do you think that this side effect can be fixed, and if so, how should proceed?

    (Hope you don't mind me asking questions, it's just very new to me, this fixing thing)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. a number means nothing to me. i need to see the shader. Why not compare what you did to these files https://s3.amazonaws.com/HelixMods/DISHONOREDTEMP/shaderoverride.zip

      shadows are in a folder.

      Delete
    2. shadows are in a folder,
      water issues remain. rest should be dealt with so just compare to that.

      Easiest way to learn is to open a game that i fixed and just find issues. Look at shaders then compare to what i did to fix them.

      Delete
    3. I dont rec commend doing it with anything helix does since its impossible to understand without some kind of degree.(I dont have a clue)

      Delete
    4. Thanks eqzitara!

      Which game that you fixed do you recommend?

      Regards,
      Pfipfo

      Delete
    5. Early stuff is fine. Look for something early thats unreal engine that i did. Basically I sort them by type of thing I had to fix. My later stuff maybe a bit more tricky.

      This may help as well.
      http://helixmod.wikispot.org/How_To_Make_Your_Own_Fixes

      Delete
    6. Hi, the shader I was talking about is: (VS488 in debug) E6A9A234. I made a before and after image:

      before:
      http://photos.3dvisionlive.com/SchmeltZ/image/507a9a09a3e0672a42000001/

      You can see something weird around the hand and the crossbow.

      after:
      http://photos.3dvisionlive.com/SchmeltZ/image/507a9acea3e0672a4200000b/

      It's fixed, but there are some black boxes on the screen.

      Do you think this is fixable? Or should I give up?

      Delete
    7. debugger disables shaders.

      disabling is not the same as fixing

      Delete
    8. Ok, I disabled it. At least the terrible shadows have gone, which made the game unplayable.

      Delete
  4. I found out that my dump folder wasn't in the folder where the executable is. So I moved it there. Now I can save my shaders!

    Regards,
    Pfipfo

    ReplyDelete
  5. I've tried to disable 17DBC272 pixel shader (DOF) in "I Am Alive" - done it strictly how it described here but DOF effect is still there. Any advices?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Make sure your folders are named correctly. I found I had my folder named "pixelshader" instead of "pixelshaders" with the s. Folder structures and names are important for this type of work.

      Delete
    2. I apologize, your completely correct. For some reason it's ignoring all the settings. Even with the old fix.

      Delete
  6. I have a mechanical keyboard without numpads.

    Any way I can assign other keys instead of Num Pad 123456?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Nope.

      Try AHK. Auto hot key and rebind keys.

      Delete
    2. Can he change the keys by using the presets in the DX9Settings.ini file, as described in Helix's first post in the forum? Like:
      VSPREVKEY=number

      VSNEXTKEY=number

      By default they are numpad, but he set it up so you can reassign those I think. Might no longer work in latest dll though.

      Delete
    3. I think the last time he was asked he recommended a macro. Can usk ahk if you want.

      Delete
  7. I used this to remove the border\overlay from Call of Juarez: Gunslinger
    When I follow the instructions to create the Shaderoverride and then launch the game, my whole screen goes black and teh game freezes...

    ReplyDelete
  8. In Call of Juarez: Gunslinger, the shadows and crosshair are in 2D. I've remove lots of shadows, but some still remains... I've try VertexShaders and PixelShaders.

    Vertex:
    6A40F29E
    6C491F9F
    85B82D9
    69214021
    E8956953
    FBB8DD2C

    ReplyDelete
  9. Is it possible to bind this to a key so you can enable/disable the vertex or pixelshader ingame? Would be useful when removing HUD and such

    ReplyDelete
  10. I use Debugger in Darkfall Unholy Wars for fire lights and I got it. But i press Numpad 6 for save and folder "Dumps" dont appear.

    Help pls

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Make sure folder isnt read only.
      Try a different version debugger. Besides that I couldnt say.
      http://helixmod.wikispot.org/oldvers

      Delete
  11. Games will crash if I put what you wrote in a vertex shader:

    vs_3_0
    dcl_position v0
    dcl_position o0

    But works if i use this instead

    vs_3_0
    dcl_position o0
    def c200, 0, 0, 0, 0
    mov o0, c200

    Just saying, incase it helps anyone.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Final fantasy a realm reborn works great with your tricks, but there a few shaders problem, can you resolve them please?

    ReplyDelete
  13. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  14. I just followed your instructions for Planet Explorers which looks promising.

    It worked! I had to hit the numpad 5 key something like 980 times, but that's not so bad, especially when the procedure is so straight forward and it works on the first try.

    In fact it was so easy maybe I'll take a look at how to fix shaders as well.

    There might be a few minor issues, but I think it's just ghosting for now. Later I'll hook up my 3D projector to make sure.

    Thanks a hundred times over Helix and everybody.

    GTA IV, Dead Space, Dragon Age, Skyrim, Borderlands, oh let's not forget OutLast! and so on were magnified exponentially by your marvelous DLL

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Would you happen to know how to do this for latest version of Planet Explorers?

      Delete
  15. Hello!
    I made a shader mod for Naruto Storm 3 Full Burst, using this guide.
    http://speedy.sh/jMEXd/Shader-mods.rar

    SCREENS:
    http://i.imgur.com/XkHBQox.png
    http://i.imgur.com/dWp675X.png
    http://i.imgur.com/KA24AH4.png
    http://i.imgur.com/frpmqXl.png
    http://i.imgur.com/zqdbrUs.png
    ===
    For more detailed information, visit this page, and read the "read me" file in the archive:
    http://forums.saiyanisland.com/showthread.php?t=66120
    * Also, this link has some texmods which go well with the shader mod.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Forgot to mention what the mod does:
      The mod removes character outlines, BG elements and menu particles.

      Delete
  16. hi is it possible to remove all the shadows in a game like assassin's creed 2

    ReplyDelete
  17. hi, how to remove effects in dx11 games??

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You can get some more background and details at the School for ShaderHackers.

      It's basically the same strategy, but you use the 3Dmigoto tool instead. You can just add the "o0=0;" to the end of a given HLSL shader.

      Delete
  18. Darksiders 2 crashes when Im trying to remoove pixel shader effects. But works fine with Vertex shader. Pls help

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Great to see you taking control of your destiny and making direct fixes. We always try to help people who put in the effort.

      For disabling something like shadows, pixel shaders are the best spot. Vertex shaders can impact other parts of the image. Although in your case for performance, it might make sense to do both.

      For disabling the shader, it can be sometimes more complicated than shown here. You want to keep the original shader signature (the dcl_* parts), and delete the rest. It won't always be identical to the example shown above.

      If that doesn't help you solve it, might be best to ask on the 3D Vision forums, where there are a lot of ShaderHackers that can help out. https://forums.geforce.com/default/board/49/3d-vision/

      Delete
  19. Hi,

    I'm struggling to fing the debug dll (the link goes to a dead page). Could anyione point me in the right direction? Thanks

    ReplyDelete
  20. Hello, this worked to disable the skybox for me in Imperium Romanum, which was rendering at screen depth. Unfortunately, where the skybox was is now a smudgy mess. How can I, instead of disabling that vertex shader, reprogram it to render further away? Thank you.

    ReplyDelete